Day 17. 58km. Colcha K – Colcha K

With the winds blowing with all their howling might into my face, and discovering the surface of the Salar is like a churned up sandpit, I returned to whence I had come.

Bike on the Salar

I tried to cycle north to the island in the middle of the dry salt lake but gave up after thinking I couldn’t make it through all this slushy salt by sunset. I tried cycling east to Uyuni but worse slushy conditions prevailed in that direction. Anyway, there’s a massive general strike in Uyuni and I couldn’t catch a bus from there to La Paz anyway as I had originally planned.

Back I went to Colcha K. Passing jeeps suggested I go to a hotel I didn’t realise was open (it’s under construction) in Colcha K and ask if anyone is going north to a place called Salinas.

Part of the way back I caught a bus that was passing.

I didn’t feel like cycling

Getting all the details right in Spanish is difficult.

I found a lovely group of Spanish tourists that let me go with them tomorrow to the island in the middle of the lake. I can try to get another lift there. Apparently the salt is as soft leaving the salar as it is entering it, so I really should try to get a lift from the island if I can.

The lovely group of Spanish tourists

The salar was meant to be the highlight of the trip, but after all this eternal headwind since entering Bolivia, bad roads, word of strikes that would stuff my plans up, and now my short experience on the salar, I’m really over cycling just for the moment. I just want to talk to my boyfriend and father and relax a bit. No more headwinds or soft sand or salt.

[…] high altitude plains. Well, it wasn’t meant to be – kind of. Worn down by the struggle, by the time I got there I was exhausted, had diahorrea and didn’t believe I could make it across to the island in the […]